07/16/18: CBS News’ Jeff Glor lands White House sit-down

Good morning. It’s Monday July 16, 2018 and this is your first early morning briefing.

Tonight’s Premieres:

Bravo: The Real Housewives of Orange County at 9p, Southern Charm: Savannah at 10p

GSN: Caroline & Friends at 4p

ID: People Magazine Investigates: Crimes of Fashion at 9p

Oxygen: Deadly Power at 8p

Telemundo: Exatlon at 7p

Tonight’s Finales:Discovery: American Chopper at 10p

Food Network: Wedding Cake Championship at 9p

Freeform: Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings at 8p

IN THE NEWS

President Trump has granted a follow-up White House interview to CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor, slated for Wednesday, July 18. Glor talked to POTUS in Scotland, ahead of Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladmir Putin.

The White House giveth, and the White House taketh away, canceling an interview CNN’s Jake Tapper was to have had on Sunday with National Security Advisor John Bolton. The move came after Trump refused to answer a question from the news net’s Jim Acosta during a press conference (though he later tweeted that Acosta is “actually a nice guy”). “Bolton remains fully prepared to do the interview but the White House canceled it,” tweeted Tapper on Saturday.

How will the Department of Justice’s appeal of the Federal court’s approval of AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner affect the deal?The DOJ’s move “doesn’t change anything,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “The transaction is closed. And were executing on the transaction,” said Stephenson. A judge ruled in favor of the transaction, without condition, on June 13.

As for the DOJ’s approval of another big deal, Disney’s offer for 21st Century Fox assets, DOJ assistant attorney general for the antitrust division Makan Delrahim wrote in a Washington Post op-ed piece that the Disney/Fox case “should be heralded as an example of merger parties working effectively with division investigators to resolve antitrust concerns.”Advertisers need to see more clarity in methodology and greater connectivity to the outcomes and metrics that matter most, Willie Jackson, VP/Director, Solutions Architect, Starcom USA, tells Cynopsis. “Select advertisers, like retailers, that own end to end measurement capabilities have the greatest ability to understand how brand and performance marketing work together to drive their businesses,” says Jackson, a speaker at the August Cynopsis Measurement & Data Conference. “However, for those that do not yet ‘own’ the conversion, there is more approximation required to get to a meaningful understanding of what short and long-term effectiveness looks like for their brands. While advertisers will continue to invest in media in the near term, the strain that the increasing opaqueness is creating between them and platforms will soon reach a tipping point.” To see the industry leaders offering insights and solutions for some of the biggest issues facing the media business, go here.

Yvette Nicole Brown, replacing Chris Hardwick as moderator for the Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead panel at Comic-Con, will also serve as interim guest host for TWD’s season 9 preview special on August 5 and after-show Talking Dead. AMC is assessing allegations, denied by Hardwick, that he abused ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra.The average consumer has 4.5 different sources to choose from when they’re ready to watch TV, including linear TV, DVR, VOD, Netflix, Hulu and others, up from 3.7 in 2014, according to HubEntertainment Research.Among younger viewers A18-34, the number of platforms is even higher – 5.1. Only 39% of viewers say live, linear TV from a traditional pay TV service is what they turn to first, down from 47% last year.

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Netflix announced it has renewed revival Queer Eye for an eight-episode season three. Production begins in Kansas City, Missouri today.

HBO ordered The Nevers, from Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), to series. Science fiction drama centers on a group of Victorian women with unusual abilities.

Drama Sweetbitter landed a second season on Starz. “Season one gave audiences a taste of the characters and backstory of an upscale New York restaurant, leaving them wanting more – which we will deliver with a second helping,” said Chris Albrecht, president and CEO of Starz.

In new Animal Planet animated series Celebrity Animal Encounters, storytellers include Kristen Bell, Justin Hartley, Al Roker and Whitney Cummings, starting Friday, July 27 at 10p. A limited run on Facebook Watch drew almost four million viewers.

Horror series Channel Zero debuts on streaming net Shudder on Thursday, August 9. The first three episodes, which have aired on Syfy, earned a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Soccer fans watching the England/Croatia semifinal on YouTube who had their service cut off mid-match got an apology and a free week of service. Accounts will be credited $10 out of a $40/month bill.

Two Twitter accounts named in the Robert Mueller indictment have been removed. Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks join the list of “disinformation” accounts dumped from Twitter.

Amazon closed at a record high of $1813.03 on Friday, up 5% for the week and 52% year-to-date. The e-commerce giant’s new 12-month price target: $2000.

Google’s Search Analytics API in the Search Console is giving advertisers more data – 25,000 rows of data per request, up from 5000 rows. The company also published a guide for marketers with an overview that includes dos and don’ts for the process.

Democratic Senators Ed Markey (Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) are urging FTC chairman Joe Simons to look into the privacy practices of smart TV manufacturers. In a letter to Simons, the senators noted that the 45% of TV households with smart TVs “may not be aware of the extent to which their televisions are collecting sensitive information about their viewing habits.”

COMING UP

New syndicated comedy series The Hustle launches on eight Fox O&O stations, including New York and LA, today. Show featuring user-generated clips and viral videos is slated to run for four weeks.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, The Africa Channel will air an uninterrupted live broadcast via satellite of The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, delivered by former president Barack Obama, Tuesday, July 17 at 8a.

3rd Rock from the Sun joins the Laff lineup starting tonight at 5p. Laff will air two hours of the 1996-2001 comedy Mondays through Fridays.

ADVERTISING & AGENCIES

SapientRazorfish is laying off about 100 employees and reassigning others to new roles. The Publicis Groupe agency said the move is the result of changing market forces and obsolete business models.

GOING GLOBAL

Sky Vision, the production and distribution arm of Sky, has acquired the distribution rights to Series 2 of A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, produced by Peacock Alley.

SHORT FORM VIDEO

Stephen Frears (Philomena) is set to direct ten-part short-form comedy series State of the Union, written by Nick Hornby (Brooklyn) and starring Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids). See-Saw Films starts shooting this summer for SundanceTV.

CASTING

Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll castmates Denis Leary and Elaine Hendrix are reuniting for USA pilot Erase, about a bad cop who reforms his ways….Rich Sommer (Mad Men) will replace Austin Nichols in the role of Dean, on CW midseason drama In the Dark.

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Today’s Trivia Question: What was the first program produced by a major broadcast network for cable TV?(Email trivia@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four correct answers from each time zone will be selected.)

Reality Competition Anagram: Stow Heartbreaking Bits High(Email trivia@cynopsis.comwith your answer; first three respondents with the correct answer who aren’t in trivia will be posted in tomorrow’s newsletter.)

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